Review:
Loaded with heart, filled with life and completely entertaining, "The Joy Luck Club" is based on Amy Tan's best-seller, directed by Wayne Wang, with a screenplay by Tan and Ronald Bass ("Rain Man").
This rich and fully dimensional ensemble character study also boasts a first-rate cast of entrancing performers. And though the audience may not have seen many of these players before, there's no question that each will stay in the hearts and minds of those who are fortunate enough to see this film.
The Joy Luck Club, as stated in the movie's opening narrative, is a collection of four aging Chinese women bound together more by hope than joy or luck. The four women - Suyuan (Kieu Chinh), Lindo (Tsai Chin), Ying Ying (France Nuyen), and An Mei (Lisa Lu) - came to America many years ago to escape China's feudal society for the promise of the United States' democracy. Now, however, Suyuan has died and the three surviving members of the club invite her daughter une (Ming-Na Wen) to take her place. June belongs to the "new" generation, those of Chinese heritage who grew up speaking English and learning American customs.
You may think you're being pulled into a different world in "The Joy Luck Club." But this saga about Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters is really your story. An interwoven narrative stretching over 30 years, it traces the painful, old-world pasts of four Chinese women and the way they pour their anguish into the innocent mouths of their children. The movie, adapted faithfully from Amy Tan's popular novel, gives refreshing -- and bittersweet -- dimension to the age-old clash between generations.
"The Joy Luck Club" comes rushing off the screen in a torrent of memories, as if its characters have been saving their stories for years, waiting for the right moment to share them. That moment comes after a death and a reunion that bring the past back in all of its power, and show how the present, too, is affected - how children who think they are so very different are deeply affected by the experiences of their parents.
Actor/Actress Info: